Mammoth News Briefs: Airport and Frontage Road

Airport Dollars May Not be Paid BackAs Mammoth continues to talk about its 2009/10 budget, Town Manager Rob Clark dropped the bomb that dollars the Town spent on the Environmental Impact Report for the Mammoth/Yosemite Airport may not be able to be paid back with the $1 million the Town expects from the FAA once they reach 10,000 enplanements in a single year. According to Clark, the money can definitely be used to pay back the portion of the Towns loan used for capital improvements at the airport. However, they are getting mixed signals on whether or not the money will be able to pay back the portion of the $5 million loan that was used for the EIR as well. The Town expects to reach 10,000 enplanements in the 2009/10 winter season because the Mountain is currently in negotiations with Horizon Airlines to bring in not one, but two flights per day to LAX, as well as a flight to the Bay Area and potentially one other destination still yet to be determined.

South Frontage Road Work to ContinueThe Town Council voted unanimously to transfer the cost of $1 million in DIF related equipment purchases for the South Frontage Road Rehabilitation project to the Vehicle Fund in order to keep the project moving. The transfer will be recorded as a loan pending further review of the DIF project list. Town Manager Rob Clark stated that this was the only feasible thing to do. Not finishing the project would cost more than finishing it at this point, Clark said. Since the project is funded with STIP grant dollars, cancelling the work would also cause the Town to have to pay back the grant dollars and jeopardize grants they may apply for in the future.

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About Benett Kessler

Always interested in writing, Benett was the editor of her high school paper, proceeded to the University of Chicago and then out West where she and John Heston formed Eastern Sierra News Service in Inyo County. They fed film to KNXT in Los Angeles and co-wrote and produced the first daily radio news in the Eastern Sierra. Their work ranged from a published news magazine to the first television newscast. They continued to provide videotaped news to KABC and other news outlets. After a seat on the Mammoth Times board and work as newswriter, Benett formed her own company, Sierra Broadcasters and launched an FM radio station, now KSRW and a broadcast television station, KSRW-TV33. The latest addition - Sierrawave.net. Her company motto: Comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable.